Health Level Seven (HL7) has been awarded a $348,000 grant by the Rockefeller Foundation to convene a conference in association with the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the path to sustainable, interoperable health technology to support better health and health systems in the Global South. The week-long "Path to Interoperability" conference will take place at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy this July and is part of the Foundation's conference series "Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partnerships, Local Solutions."
Ingenix will collaborate with the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) to create a statewide repository of health claims data in Wisconsin. WHIO will report on the quality of care, measured against evidence-based treatment guidelines enabling Wisconsin healthcare provider groups to benchmark their results against their peers. This initiative hopes to provide insight for employers and consumers on the value of healthcare services in the state.
Novo Innovations will provide electronic electronic information exchange software to Southwest Washington Medical Center (SWMC) of Vancouver, WA. Electronic delivery of laboratory results and transcribed reports through the Novo system are the first functionalities offered by SWMC. The hospital intends to expand the range of information it can exchange electronically to include radiology reports and lab orders.
Aetna is providing physicians with electronic notices about patients' healthcare, such as warnings about potential drug-to-drug or drug-to-disease interactions. "Care Considerations" will now be sent through Aetna's secure provider website via NaviNet, Aetna has announced. Last year, more than 1.6 million Care Considerations were sent by phone, fax or mail to physicians who provided care for Aetna members. Care Considerations alert physicians to opportunities for improved care when care appears to have deviated from evidence-based medical best-practice standards, according to an Aetna release.
In radiology, automated worklist tools help ensure that the right study gets to the right radiologist in the least amount of time. However, most worklists lack the capability to filter exam interpretation assignments on the basis of insurance reimbursement.
Now a team of physicians from Staten Island University Hospital in New York has addressed the deficiency by developing a worklist tool that assigns studies based on a patient's insurance and a radiologist's credentialing status.
Trusera, a new social-networking website centered on health, has officially launched. The site features online communities and personalized health information, and allows members to endorse one another's contributions as a way to identify reliable sources of information. Trusera focuses on social networking and storytelling in an effort to foster communities in which users can learn from one another's experiences and seek out knowledgeable advice.